"Gay Witch Hunt" is the third-season premiere of the American

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original series o ...

'', and the show's twenty-ninth episode overall. Written by executive producer and

show runner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also the ...

Greg Daniels Gregory Martin Daniels (born June 13, 1963) is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for ''Saturday Night Live'' and ''The Simpsons'', adapting ''The Office (Am ...

and directed by

Ken Kwapis Kenneth William Kwapis (born August 17, 1957) is an American film and television director, screenwriter, and author. He specialized in the single-camera sitcom in the 1990s and 2000s and has directed feature films such as '' Sesame Street Presen ...

, the episode first aired in the United States on September 21, 2006, on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

. The series depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the

Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming V ...

branch of the fictional

Dunder Mifflin Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, Inc. is a fictional paper and office supplies wholesale company featured in the American television series ''The Office''. It is analogous to Wernham Hogg in the British original of the series, and Papiers Jenning ...

Paper Company. In the episode, Michael Scott (

Steve Carell Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He played Michael Scott in ''The Office'' (2005–2011; 2013), NBC’s adaptation of the British series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, where Ca ...

) discovers that Oscar Martinez (

Oscar Nunez Oscar Nunez (born November 18, 1958), sometimes credited as Oscar Nuñez, is a Cuban-American actor. He is best known for his role as the Dunder Mifflin accountant Oscar Martinez on NBC's ''The Office''. He was a member of The Groundlings and l ...

) is

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

. Michael tries to show Oscar that he is accepting of his sexual orientation, but only ends up insulting him. It is also revealed that after kissing Pam Beesly (

Jenna Fischer Regina Marie "Jenna" Fischer (born March 7, 1974) is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Pam Beesly on the NBC sitcom ''The Office'' (2005–2013), for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Suppor ...

), Jim Halpert ( John Krasinski) went through with transferring to Stamford. In addition, Pam called off her engagement with Roy Anderson (

David Denman David Denman (born July 25, 1973) is an American actor. He made his film debut in '' The Replacements''. His other feature credits include ''Big Fish'', '' Fair Game'', ''The Nines'', '' Shutter'', ''Smart People'', '' Fanboys'', '' Let Go'', '' ...

). The episode features a kiss between Michael and Oscar. This scene was not scripted, and was an improvised moment courtesy of Carell. An estimated 9.1 million viewers watched the episode, a 23 percent increase from the previous

season premiere A season premiere is the first episode of a new season of a returning television show. In the United States, many season premieres are aired in the fall time or, for mid-season replacements, either in the spring or late winter. In countries such ...

" The Dundies". "Gay Witch Hunt" received positive reviews from television critics.

Plot

After calling Oscar Martinez (

) " faggy", Michael Scott (

) learns that Oscar finds the word offensive because he is homosexual. While attempting to apologize, Michael inadvertently

outs In baseball, an out occurs when the umpire rules a batter or baserunner out. When a batter or runner is out, they lose their ability to score a run and must return to the dugout until their next turn at bat. When three outs are recorded in a ha ...

Oscar to the entire office. Jan Levinson (

Melora Hardin Melora Hardin (born June 29, 1967) is an American actress, known for her roles as Jan Levinson on NBC's ''The Office'' and Trudy Monk on USA Network's ''Monk'', and Tammy Cashman on Amazon Prime Video's '' Transparent'', for which she received ...

) berates Michael for his behavior, after Michael's seminar on homosexuality is a disaster. When Oscar threatens to quit, Michael attempts to reconcile with Oscar, first by hugging him, and then kissing him on the lips. Oscar is given three months paid vacation and use of a company car in exchange for not suing

. It is revealed that after their kiss, Pam Beesly (

) confirmed to Jim Halpert ( John Krasinski) her intention to marry Roy Anderson (

). However, a few days before the wedding, Pam got cold feet and decided to call it off. She moved into her own apartment and began taking art classes. Pam's rejection sent Roy into a downward spiral, hitting rock bottom with a drunk driving arrest. When being interviewed by the camera crew, Roy makes a vow to win Pam back. Jim has transferred to Dunder Mifflin's Stamford branch and tries to settle into his new office. He then meets smug co-worker

Andy Bernard Andrew Baines Bernard is a fictional character from the NBC comedy television series ''The Office (U.S. TV series), The Office'', portrayed by Ed Helms. He is introduced in Season 3 as the Regional Director in Charge of Sales at the Stamford br ...

(

Ed Helms Edward Parker Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor and comedian. From 2002 to 2006, he was a correspondent on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''. He played paper salesman Andy Bernard in the NBC sitcom '' The Offi ...

) who brags about his wild college days at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

. Jim tries to target him like he targeted Dwight, but becomes scared of Andy's more violent tendencies. Meanwhile, sales representative

Karen Filippelli ''The Office'' is an American television series based on the British television comedy of the same name. The format of the series is a parody of the fly on the wall documentary technique that intersperses traditional situation comedy segments w ...

(

Rashida Jones Rashida Leah Jones (; born February 25, 1976) is an American actress. Jones appeared as Louisa Fenn on the Fox drama series '' Boston Public'' (2000–2002), as Karen Filippelli on the NBC comedy series ''The Office'' (2006–2009; 2011), and ...

) is disconcerted by Jim's constant smirks to the camera.

Production

"Gay Witch Hunt" was the eighth episode of the series directed by

. Kwapis had previously directed "

Pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

", " Diversity Day", " Sexual Harassment", " The Fire", " The Fight", "

Booze Cruise In British slang, a booze cruise is a brief trip from Britain to France or Belgium with the intent of taking advantage of lower prices, and buying personal supplies of (especially) alcohol or tobacco in bulk quantities. This is a legally allowe ...

", and " Casino Night". "Gay Witch Hunt" was written by executive producer and

. The kiss between Michael and Oscar in the conference room was not scripted. The scene had been shot a couple of times with

not kissing

. Then on one take, Oscar saw " arell'slips coming closer and closer". Nunez recalled "I'm like, 'Dear God, he's going to kiss me.' And sure enough, he planted one on my face." The other cast members were laughing during the kiss but because the camera stays focused on Carell and Nunez, the scene was still usable. At

Paleyfest The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York with a branch office in Los Angeles, dedicated to ...

in early 2007, Steve Carell later recalled that he enjoyed the episode "because it spoke to the fact that Michael is not a homophobe; he just doesn't understand the world. They are two very different things. It's not that he's intrinsically racist or homophobic or sexist, he just doesn't have a frame of reference. He's not capable of understanding. And once he does glean some understanding he misinterprets it into something altogether. But I think at least the way I feel about the character is he's a decent heart, a decent person and he's just trying his best." The third season DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode, including Karen pulling a prank on Jim by setting his dial tone to call Hong Kong, Andy comparing his jumping skills to Michael Jordan to Jim, Michael asking Pam how she is holding up since the wedding broke off, and Jan being furious at Michael.

Reception

"Gay Witch Hunt" first aired on NBC on September 21, 2006. The Nielsen ratings for "Gay Witch Hunt" indicated that it was watched by approximately 9.1 million viewers, a 23 percent increase from the second season premiere " The Dundies". During its timeslot, "Gay Witch Hunt" ranked second among men ages 18–49 and 24–54, and first among men ages 18–34. "Gay Witch Hunt" generally received praise from critics. ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corpora ...

s Matt Roush admitted that he "loved Oscar's self-deprecating reaction to his newfound notoriety".Roush, Matt (September 22, 2006)
A Gay Old Office Time
. ''

''. Retrieved June 25, 2008 Roush said that when watching Michael "you can't help but forgive the idiot, while wondering how in the world he manages to keep his job," and that the kiss between Michael and Oscar was "horrifically funny". Brian Zoromski of IGN rated the episode with a 9 out of 10, an indication of an "amazing" episode. He observed that the episode's best scenes "show the impact of Jim and Pam being in different offices," and thought Andy's reactions made the audience appreciate Dwight more. Steve West of Cinemablend stated that "the balance between laughing at Michael’s ineptitude and the discomfit of Oscar was handled so deftly that it’s a wonder the show became successful when similarly great writing in ''

Arrested Development The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was first used, ''circa'' 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be use ...

'' did nothing to garner viewers."West, Steve (September 22, 2006)
TV Recap: ''The Office'' Season Premiere
. Cinemablend. Retrieved June 25, 2008 For his work on this episode,

won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.

also received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for his work on this episode as well, but lost to ''

Ugly Betty ''Ugly Betty'' is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which was originally broadcast on ABC. It premiered on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombi ...

''s

Richard Shepard Richard Shepard (born 1965) is an American film director, film and television director and screenwriter. Biography Shepard was born in New York City, New York (state), New York. Shepard's father was from an Austro-Hungarian-Hungarian Jews, Jewi ...

for his work on the pilot episode.

References

External links

"Gay Witch Hunt"
at NBC.com * {{Good article 2006 American television episodes American LGBT-related television episodes The Office (American season 3) episodes Emmy Award-winning episodes